Oceanside wins county title

Lady Sailors rally to edge MacArthur

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A day after scoring all 13 of its runs with two outs on the way to stunning top-seeded MacArthur in the opening game of the Nassau Class AA softball championship series, No. 2 Oceanside found more magic in its bats in last Friday’s Game 2 at Hofstra.

Senior Claire McNamara’s two-out single up the middle brought home junior Risa Zucker with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to give the Lady Sailors a dramatic 6-5 come-from-behind, walk-off victory and their first county title since 2008.

“It feels 10 times better than I thought it would,” McNamara said. “After making the finals and coming close last year, we really didn’t want anything less than a championship. I’m so happy we did it.”

Oceanside (19-6) scored three times in its final at-bat after falling behind 5-3 in the top of the seventh when MacArthur’s Jessica Lombardo (3-for-3, four RBIs) slammed a two-out, tiebreaking two-run homer over the fence in left. Nicolette Moustouka scored twice for the Lady Generals, who won both regular-season meetings on the way to capturing the Conference AA-I crown.

“We’ve been a resilient bunch all year,” Lady Sailors coach Joe Supple said. “Our first game was a walk-off win over East Meadow, and this was our fourth one-run win in the playoffs. These girls just never stop battling.”

Grace Bandini and Samantha Colten set the table for the winning rally with back-to-back singles to left. Alyssa Hernandez advanced the runners with a sac bunt, and Brittany Teman walked to load the bases with one out. Zucker’s fielder’s choice grounder made it 5-4, and pinch-runner Emily Paczkowski crossed the plate with the equalizer when Megan McNamara’s hard bouncer to short was bobbled.

That set the stage for Claire McNamara, who joined sophomore pitcher Sabrina Seeger, Bandini and Teman on the playoff game-winning hit list. All but two of Oceanside’s 19 runs in the series came with two outs. “I wanted to be aggressive,” McNamara said. “I knew if I didn’t get a hit, we’d go extras and Taylor [Eisel] would be leading off next inning and we’d be OK. But I really wanted to end it.”

The Lady Sailors, who have won 10 of 11 one-run games, will battle Eastport- South Manor for the Long Island Class AA championship this Friday at 6 p.m. at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue. Neither program has a L.I. title.

“It took us a little while to find ourselves this year,” Supple said. “We’ve got some versatile athletes and they’re all team players. We were able to put it all together at the right time.

“We beat a tough Calhoun team in our first playoff game, found a way to get by Massapequa after losing the first game of the semis, and just beat a great MacArthur team that got us twice earlier in the year,” he added.

The Lady Generals finished 21-6. “We had a tremendous year,” coach Bob Fehrenbach said. “Oceanside just had so many clutch hits.”

Zucker had the first big swing in Game 2, dunking a two-run single in the second—with two outs—to score Bandini and Teman for a 2-0 lead. MacArthur pulled even in the third and then took the lead in the fifth when Lombardo doubled home Shannon Myles. Oceanside answered in the bottom of the sixth when Hernandez led off with a single and eventually scored when while sliding into home she jarred the ball loose from the catcher.

“This is so awesome,” said Seeger, who starred in the 13-1 series-opening win with five RBIs and a gem of a pitching performance.